


Probably Nothing

by prepare4trouble



Series: Little By Little [25]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Connections through the Force, Dokma, Force Powers, Gen, Minor Original Character(s), Visually Impaired Ezra Bridger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 01:25:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10709238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prepare4trouble/pseuds/prepare4trouble
Summary: There seem to be a few more dokma around the base than usual, but it’s probably nothing.





	Probably Nothing

The engineer’s guttural growl could probably be heard all the way across the base. Ezra was certain that somewhere on the perimeter, a ship had just sustained some kind of damage to its structural integrity from the sound vibrations.

Unfortunately for Ezra, and for Kanan too, they happened to be walking past when it happened.

Ezra winced and instinctively reached up to cover his ears, actually feeling his eardrums vibrate unnaturally with the sound. Kanan, standing next to him, gave surprisingly little outward reaction. He frowned, and turned his head in the direction of the sound, as though he would be able to see what had caused it.

He did that sometimes. Often, actually. Ezra wondered -- but would never ask -- why. Was it just something that people did automatically? Could Kanan hear or sense what was going on better if he was facing something? Or... did he forget? Did he turn his head with the expectation of seeing what was happening, only to find himself disappointed time and again?

Ezra hoped not, for his own sake as much as Kanan’s.

He dragged his attention away from Kanan and turned his own head to follow what should have been the Jedi’s gaze. He found a middle-aged man glaring in frustration into an access panel on the outside of a ship that he was working on. “I don’t recognise him, I think he’s one of the new mechanics that arrived last month,” he said quietly to Kanan, and smirked. “Looks like he’s having trouble fixing something.”

Noticing Ezra watching him, the man extracted himself from the access panel and called across. “Hey! Why hadn’t anybody done anything about these things?”

“Uh, the ships? I thought that’s what you were doing,” Ezra replied. Or trying to do, anyway.

“No, _these_ things! These… racing things, whatever they’re called.” He gesticulated wildly at the interior of the control panel.

Ezra glanced at Kanan to check whether he looked as confused as Ezra felt. He didn’t. But then, he hadn’t seen the man babbling about racing things inside a control panel. He didn’t bother to fill him in on the details just yet, though part of him felt like he should. “I’ll just be a minute, okay?” he said, and then stepped a little closer to the engineer.

It wasn’t dark out, but the shadows inside the panel hid the contents quite effectively. He peered inside, to find two dokma, back to back, leaning against each other, inside the panel. One of them wore a chipped and worn smudge of dark colored paint that contrasted with its shell, showing it had been released recently from the racing team.

They were afraid. Their fear, the sensation of being trapped, pressed on him. He could feel it without even making a conscious effort to form a connection to them. He had never connected with the dokma before, and it was strange, their minds were different, not as different as the giant spiders that still eluded him, but different enough that it took him a moment to fully understand what he was feeling from them

He reached inside and lifted first one, and then the other snail out, and placed them on the ground by the ship. “Dokma,” he said, calling across to Kanan. “Two of them, inside the control panel. They climbed in there last night for warmth. I guess the engine was still cooling? But then they couldn’t get out again.”

“Wait, what?” the engineer said. “Can you _talk_ to these things?”

“Uh,” Ezra shook his head. “Not really, I…”

“Why don’t you try asking them to keep out of the machinery? And not to get underfoot, while you’re at it. One of them tripped me the other day; it wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t been carrying a bunch of equipment, but I fell flat on my face, on top of a pile of stuff. I’ve still got the bruises. Look!” He pointed at his eye.

Ezra looked, but couldn’t see any evidence of bruising. That didn’t mean it wasn’t there. He winced theatrically, and sucked in air through pursed lips. “Ouch, yeah,” he said. “Nasty.”

He wasn’t sure, but he thought that he detected some kind of reaction from Kanan; something just on the periphery of his awareness, a ripple through the Force, displeasure, irritation. He ignored it.

“Anyway, sorry,” he said to the engineer. “I can’t actually ‘talk’ to them, just kinda… get an idea of what they’re feeling? Mostly that stuff was just me filling in the blanks.”

“Yeah?” he said. “Well maybe you could fill in the big blank space over why they’re acting this way. I know I haven’t been here long, but I’m sure there didn’t used to be this many of them around. If it carries on, nobody’s gonna be able to move for critters. Forget about the Empire, we’re gonna be at war with these things!”

Ezra frowned. The man seemed to be taking it a bit too far. Sure, there had been a few more dokma around than usual, but they weren’t a major problem. And frankly, it felt good to hear that other people were tripping on them too. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that,” he said flatly, and turned away, back to Kanan. He rolled his eyes, but of course the expression was lost on Kanan, and his lack of reaction made Ezra think of things that he would rather not.

One day, he might learn not to do things like that. It might even be while he could still see, himself. And if he could train himself out of that, he could train himself out of turning to look at things that he had no hope of seeing, because he was sure that was what Kanan was doing each and every time he turned in the direction of a sound.

“He does have a point,” Kanan said.

“What?”

“The dokma. Something’s going on.”

Ezra frowned and glanced around him. There weren’t _that_ many more of the creatures than normal. Sure, maybe there were a few more, and maybe they were a little more mobile than he was used to, but that was hardly a problem. And if it wasn’t a problem for _him_ , it shouldn’t be an issue for the rest of the base personnel, most of whom had no trouble noticing the little animals before they got underfoot.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Ezra said.

Kanan frowned. What Ezra could see of his face appeared thoughtful as he looked through him with the painted eyes of his mask. “Is there any chance you’re not s…” he paused. “What I’m saying is, I’ve heard a lot of people talking about the dokma lately. One person yesterday even used the word ‘swarm’.”

Ezra shrugged. “I haven’t seen that many more around than…” he stopped abruptly. What was Kanan getting at? Was he implying that Ezra had completely failed to notice a ‘swarm’ descending on the base? Was he suggesting that Ezra hadn’t _seen_ it?

Was there any chance he was right?

No. No, definitely not.

Ezra looked around carefully. There were a few of the snail-like creatures nearby, but nothing that looked like a swarm. A little further away he could make out shapes that could, _possibly_ , be more, but he wasn’t sure. They didn’t seem to be moving, but if they were going slowly it might be difficult to tell. Further away there were still more that may, or may not, be stones, or rocks… or dokma, he supposed. And if that was what they were…

He turned to look behind him and found the same thing, dozens of things making the ground far more uneven than it should be. He thought of the comments that he had heard around the base, and how every single time he had been a little puzzled that a small increase in the number of dokma had prompted so much interest.

“I mean, they’re there,” he said. “Yeah, loads of them. Everywhere. What I _mean_ is it’s not a problem. They’re not hurting anything, and they’ll probably go away again in a few days. Nothing to worry about.” That had been convincing, right?

Maybe it would have been, if he had been speaking to anybody but Kanan. As it was, he had probably just made the whole thing worse.

“Okay,” Kanan said. “Maybe you’re right.” He turned to leave, conversation over. “Come on,” he added. “Hera’ll be wondering where we are.”

**Author's Note:**

> ♥♥ Comments are loved ♥♥


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